Treasures in Earthen Vessels

2 Corinthians 4:7–18 KJV

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

I. Verse 7

When you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, when you believe on Him, when you repent of your sins, when you are baptized in his name, and receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, you have Jesus dwelling in you.

Jesus himself said “I am the light of the world”.

Paul therefore says in verse 6 that God has made this light to shine in our hearts, so that we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus.

Now in verse 7, Paul says that we have this light shining in our hearts, BUT, we have this treasure. When you are saved you have something valuable. When you have Jesus, you have something that is valuable. Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Clay jars, fragile jars, we have something valuable inside of us but we ourselves are fragile.

We are fragile, our bodies are fragile, sometimes our minds are fragile, and God knows how weak we are, He knows our weaknesses and our frailty. Usually, you put valuable stuff in something that is strong, a safe, a bank, a safe deposit box, but God in His rich mercy, decided to deposit his Spirit inside of these fragile and weak bodies.

Paul then says, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. Saints of God, this is the key......God knows how weak we are, but he has the power to strength us, he has the power to keep us if we want to be kept.

Many of us have the testimony that it has been nobody but Jesus that has kept me. When I couldn’t keep myself, he kept me, when I felt like my mind was shattering, he kept me, when I wanted to throw in the towel, He kept. The NLT says “This makes it clear that our great power”.......don’t you know saints of God that you have power? This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

II. Paul and the believers experiences (verse 8-10)

Paul says we are troubled on every side. Everywhere we turn there is trouble. We are pressed by it on every side. But we are not distressed, or we are not crushed by the troubles.

We are perplexed, things happen in our life sometimes and we don’t understand why. We can’t see clearly and sometimes we may quietly ask “why”, “why is this happening”. But yet at the same time, because of the power of God in our life.....see you have to connect verse 6 and 7 to understand verses 8-10. It is the power of God that keeps us from going into despair.....when we don’t understand. Why? Because we depend on God!

Paul then says, we are persecuted, we are hunted down, you may suffer persecution but not forsaken.....you must believe the word of the Lord that God will not abandon you! How many believe that this morning.

Paul then says “cast down”.....sometimes we get knocked down don’t we and that is a dangerous thing for a fragile object because when a fragile object is knocked over it usually shatters. But when you have a fragile object that survives the fall.....it is usually a miracle. Some of us we’ve had things happen in our life that should have broke us.....but it was a miracle that it didn’t......and it was nobody but God that kept us!

Verse 10 then says “Always bearing about in the body, in our bodies, through suffering, we share in the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

III. Suffering for serving Jesus.

Paul then says “For we which live (talking about living for Jesus, he’s talking those of us who serve the Lord) are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake. We live in constant danger Paul says. Imagine that, many of us can’t empathize with Paul because we don’t live in constant danger. I want to point this out. Paul was literally hunted, he was pressed by many troubles, there were times he didn’t understand why he was going through the things that he went through.

But then the LORD gave him understanding, and that understanding was that the life of Jesus my be evident in our dying bodies. Our bodies are fragile and whether you like it or not, we have dying bodies.

Paul says we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. Through his preaching, through his sacrifices, through his trials and tribulations, people were being saved.

But then Paul says in verse 13 “We having the same spirit of faith, the NASB says “but having the same spirit of faith, and the NLT says “But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said “I believed in God, so I spoke”

That’s the kind of faith we need, that no matter what happens in our life we continue to do what God has called us to do. No matter what happens in our life, we continue to serve the LORD, you need to have that kind of faith and determination. That no matter what the devil may throw your way, I refuse to give up, I refuse to not serve Him and live for Him, I’m going to still love the LORD no matter what happens, and I will praise Him. David said I will bless the LORD at all times and His praise shall continually be in my mouth!!!

Paul speaks a word of faith, yes I’m fragile, yes I’m weak, yes I have trouble pressing on me from every side, yes I am hunted down, but I won’t let the trouble of life stop me. If we should die, Paul essentially says because he wasn’t the only one that was experiencing troubles, the church was going through. Anyone going through this morning? Paul then says, if I die....I know or we know that God, who raised up Jesus (verse 14) will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.

Paul then says essentially that he might be going through, but it is for your benefit, it is for your sakes. Sometimes God might carry you through and bring you out, not only to strengthen you, but to help someone else. You can encourage someone to hang in there, to trust God, to lean on Jesus, to love Him and praise Him no matter what!

Paul then says in verse 15, “All things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace, God has abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.” As God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving. I believe Paul being a Hebrew, was speaking from the hebrew standpoint of thanksgiving. In which according to hebrew tradition, thanksgiving is more than just praise. Thanksgiving is praise to God, it is acknowledging God and turning away from sin. That’s why I said before, the best praise you can give the LORD is by how you live. I know we say “hallelujah is the highest praise” but that isn’t found in scripture. And I want to challenge anyone who thinks it is and has the scripture to support it to bring it to me and show to me in the Bible.

The highest praise you can give to God is to live a life of appreciation towards God. Because Jesus himself said “These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” You can talk good about a person and then do stuff behind their backs that is undermining. There is acceptable praise and unacceptable praise. Acceptable praise is praise that comes from a clean heart, praise that comes from an individual that acknowledges God for who He is, praises Him for what He has done for them, and shows their appreciate by living a life that is consecrated to Him!

IV. Conclusion

Paul brings a close to chapter 4 by saying in verse 16 “For which cause we faint not” I have all this stuff going on......but I won’t give up. But though our outward man perish, we are dying, we are weak, we are fragile, many of us are having problems with a myrid of things, yet the inward man is renewed day by day!

Paul then says for our light affliction, what you dealing with, the troubles that you may be experiencing right now is a light affliction, and the good thing about it, Paul says your problems are only for a moment. It is a temporary thing, soon it’s going to be over, soon the LORD is going to bring you out, soon the LORD is going to work it out, SOMEBODY HOLLER SOON!!!! I know you been in it for awhile.....but SOON it will be over!

The troubles that you are experiencing is working for you, it is producing a glory that vastly outweighs them and a glory that will last forever!

Last scripture, I want to quote from the NLT:

2 Corinthians 4:18 NLT

So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.